Turning a profit and doing good

Michele Nevett, University of Windsor Health and Social Innovation research associate, left, and Cathy Mombourquette, director of Social Innovation WEtech Alliance, are seen together on July 7, 2017. The United Church of Canada, University of Windsor's EPICentre, WEtech Alliance and the Windsor Essex Community Foundation have joined forces to launch a new kind of innovation hub.JASON KRYK / Windsor Star

Windsor’s newest business incubator could be in a church, and the companies based there will have to have a conscience.

The United Church of Canada is joining with the University of Windsor’s EPICentre, technology accelerator WEtech Alliance and the Windsor Essex Community Foundation to launch a new kind of innovation hub.

Businesses, non-profit groups, church and community members will meet Aug. 2 to study the foundation’s latest Vital Signs report on life in Windsor, identify the city’s needs and discuss solutions.

That will be followed by the real event Nov. 30 at the EPICentre, when a panel of judges from businesses, charities and the church will hear pitches for new companies to address local issues. It’s like Dragons’ Den for the socially conscious.

There doesn’t have to be anything sacred about the proposals. But they must be financially viable, and most important, they must benefit the neighbourhood or the city or even the world.

“It has to have social impact,” said Carla Leon, manager of new initiatives for Edge, the United Church’s innovation team.

It could be a company that serves people with low incomes or youth or seniors or a company that deals with the environment.

“We want to be wildly, radically open,” said Leon. “If we’re trying to inspire people, saying no doesn’t make sense.”

Five winners will receive between $500 and $1,500 each for their start-ups plus a mentor, access to legal support and other support, such as help designing a website or crowdfunding. The top 10 proposals will be offered space in a new community innovation hub in a local church.

“If someone has a really great idea, let’s give them the capacity and support to get their big idea off the ground,” said Leon.

Proposals elsewhere have included employing low income mothers to make baby blankets in their homes so they don’t need child care. For each blanket sold, the company would donate diapers to mothers in need. Another company would do renovations for seniors to allow them to continue living independently in their homes. Two University of Waterloo students created and tested a machine to deactivate landmines without having to go near them or detonate them.

Two United churches, in Markham and Orillia, have already established community innovation hubs. Each one has 12 small businesses. Three more hubs, in Scarborough, Richmond Hill and downtown Toronto, are expected to be launched this fall.

It’s all part of the United Church’s attempt to engage young people and broaden its role in the community.

“We look at social innovation as church,” said Leon. “They’re very much linked.”

Churches traditionally fed the poor and cared for the sick. Then, they came to be known primarily as places to worship on Sundays.

But simply going to church on Sundays isn’t necessarily being faithful, said Leon.

It’s “living out what it is to be a good person, understanding that can be Monday to Saturday as well,” she said. “We’re just reclaiming our roots and realizing that church is more than Sundays.”

The church is also discovering that young people don’t want to just donate money. They want to do good.

“They actually want to be part of it,” said Leon. “They want to own it.”

Michelle Nevett, a health and social innovation researcher at EPICentre, sees that among students at the university.

“We want to show them they can start their own businesses with that social goal in mind and still make money,” she said. “It’s turning a profit and doing good.”

It’s “a job with a purpose,” said Cathy Mombourquette, WEtech’s social innovation director.

“People say, ‘I don’t want to make money doing this,'” she said. “We say you need to make money because if you don’t, you’ll have to go get a full-time job.”

It’s also a way for the church to use buildings left partially empty because of dwindling attendance.

“We already have the infrastructure,” said Leon. “Why not provide this?”

This, too, has been a traditional role for the church, she said. A century ago, the church was where the community gathered for all sorts of activities.

“We want to try to be that hub again,” she said.

Ten churches in Windsor are available to host hubs. Leon won’t say which ones they are yet.

For the city, it’s another avenue for economic development. The businesses will create jobs, bring in money and help drive the economy.

It’s also a way to keep the community’s young people, said Nevett. Social enterprise is big in London, Toronto and Ottawa. If millennials see it’s happening here, she said, “they’ll likely want to be part of it and stay here.”

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